An older church I worked with was attempting to address its minimum factor of Need-oriented Evangelism. The gentleman leading the NCD process shared with me that, after some months of attempting to move forward on the results, he found himself battling against strong resistance to the word 'evangelism' itself. Perplexed, frustrated, and somewhat desperate to make at least some progress on a deficiency that he assumed was fairly obvious, he took an intriguing sideways step.

In his wisdom, he realised that while words are extremely important, they are only ever attempts to convey a message and meaning in the best way you can. Clearly the term 'Need-oriented Evangelism' was conveying something, but presumably that something was mostly bad. Rather than being about (the) good news, it was all bad news. So, what he tried (and what anyone should try who comes across a similar problem) was to change the term. If you are good with words, you can perhaps come up with a completely new term that captures the essence of a given NCD quality characteristic in the minds of your people even better than the original term. Or you can start with a slightly better term that will at least let the conversation get started and maybe eventually allow you to speak about the whole concept.

The term he coined was 'Need-oriented Angelism'. Suddenly, the angst subsided, and with exactly the same results in hand (even with detailed analysis showing exactly the same kind of issues behind the term), they were able to enter a very constructive discussion.

What had simply happened was this church had a particular picture in mind when they thought of evangelism. They immediately imagined that the NCD Survey was suggesting that they need to become Bible-bashing, judgemental, manipulative sales people with little regard for the gentle nurturing of relationships (which, at least within their church, was something at which they were good). The term 'Angelism' allowed them to imagine a different posture—a coming alongside another person as opposed to confronting a person head-on. Of course, it is unfortunate that the word evangelism could not be used (a word which, in and of itself, contains nothing of the notions they had attached to it or had seen attached to it). But, for now, it was unimportant. The principle behind the term had been unshackled from the constraints of words, was able to illuminate that place and allow them to start breathing the power of the Gospel into the needs of others, in ways that were true to who God had gifted that church to be. Brilliant!